Spare Us the Early Onslaught of Christmas!! On the night of Saturday, November 1, I went to a house party in the Fox Point section of Providence. Standing in the beer line, flanked by Cruella DeVille and Catwoman, I was both confused and underdressed.

Feel the music I personally find it comforting that the current number-one single in the country has a chorus that goes "I'll gas up the jet for you tonight, and baby we can go wherever you like."

Jingle spells Nothing screams Christmas like children dabbling with sorcery. Which is why Harry and the Potters' annual Yule Ball is such a howling success every year.

Spare Us the Early Onslaught of Christmas!! On the night of Saturday, November 1, I went to a house party in the Fox Point section of Providence. Standing in the beer line, flanked by Cruella DeVille and Catwoman, I was both confused and underdressed.

Feel the music I personally find it comforting that the current number-one single in the country has a chorus that goes "I'll gas up the jet for you tonight, and baby we can go wherever you like."

Jingle spells Nothing screams Christmas like children dabbling with sorcery. Which is why Harry and the Potters' annual Yule Ball is such a howling success every year.

Mixed nuts Ballet Rox's Urban Nutcracker , the ultimate multicultural Christmas celebration, has become so inclusive, it's almost a blur.

Here they come a-wassailing There's not a whole lot of Yuletide-themed activity on Boston's musical fringes this year, and that makes the holiday rock show at the Milky Way this Sunday all the more welcome.

Is it magic yet? When you've seen every Boston Ballet Nutcracker for the past 20-odd years, and reviewed most of them, it can get a little hard to locate the magic. Then again, when you survey other Nutcracker s around the world you appreciate that there's no place like home, and not many that are as good.

Updike does death, R. Crumb does God, Vanity Fair does Proust Trying to reach as broad a range of tastes and pocketbooks as possible, we this year scavenged everything from the front pages of the Onion to R. Crumb's genesis, to valedictory Updike. Stuff to read, stuff to look at, glossy pages and matte. Remember: be careful not to nick the pages or spill eggnog on them before you wrap. Happy holidays!

Mad Men on Mass Ave We have many long, painful, Mad Men– less months stretching ahead of us, as we wait for the show to return to AMC and shower us with more broken marriages, snappy quips, jaw-dropping revelations, and (hopefully) amputated limbs.

MICHAUD FOR GOVERNOR | November 03, 2014 However you’ve been following the race for Governor this election season, you’ve been hearing it from all sides, so we’ll make this one brief. We urge you to vote for Michael Michaud.

ADVANCED BEAUTY LESSONS | November 03, 2014 Described as a “body-positive visibility project,” Portland’s Jack Tar 207 is all about representation. Models are encouraged to bring their own clothing and personal belongings to the shoot, which owner-designer LK Weiss says brings out “a level of confidence that many people don’t feel in front of a camera.”

LITERALLY LGBT | October 31, 2014 A community-compiled list of important GBLTQ works through the years.

BACK TO REALITY | September 18, 2014 If you’re a student in southern Maine and are at all interested in arts and humanities, and have a budget of exactly $10 to spend on any one event, there’s a lot in your favor.